


Establishing Order

by emothy



Category: Gokusen (TV), Japanese Drama
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-21
Updated: 2007-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 03:10:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emothy/pseuds/emothy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set before the drama, in first year. Shin has been expelled from his previous school and taken up at Shirokin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Establishing Order

-

Three weeks in to his second semester at Shirokin and still anyone has yet to speak to Shin exept the Head Teacher on his very first day. And even _his_ voice wavered. Shin's homeroom teacher doesn't call his name on the register, as if speaking it will remind him Shin is actually there, in his class, existing like a time-bomb just waiting to go off. He just pauses when he gets to Sawada Shin on his register, peers up nervously, and ticks off Shin's name as fast as he can and moves on. He always speaks the next name, Sengoku Ryuji, with a slight stammer. Nobody notices it anymore anyway. 1-D are all always too busy talking the whole way through.

When the teacher has to step out of class for a moment it's as if they've been given a gift. Immediately the noise grows wilder, even though they've already been facing the wrong way, sitting the tops of their desks, ignoring the classroom anyway. Shin sinks lower in his chair and wonders why he even bothers coming to the school. At least it is vaguely amusing that they're all scared of him, but it is beginning to get old. Perhaps tomorrow he will just not turn up. His teacher might even thank him.

It is this thought he's contemplating when he sees feet arrive at the foot of his desk. He looks up immediately, just to see what will happen; will the owner scurry away? Will he apologize for his mistake, his daring to approach Sawada Shin? Or will he just smile nervously and back away, watching Shin's eyes the whole time like prey about to be pounced upon?

The owner of the shoes does smile nervously, Shin notices, but only for a second. Just like the swallow his throat wants to snatch but he refuses to give away. He is Uchiyama Haruhiko, Shin knows, because he has spent the past three weeks watching them all, and he sits just in front of Shin and to the right. No-one sits next to Shin, or behind; he has been shoved at the back at a borrowed desk, away from everyone and easily ignored. Uchiyama tries to meet Shin's constant stare; he has obviously been thinking about approaching for a while and fortified himself against it. Shin knows his smile turns predatory at that thought, but he hides it. He wants Uchiyama to make the first move, to know what he wants before saying anything.

The room around them has turned deadly silent, Shin realises. Soon their teacher will notice, if he is just outside, and know something is wrong. This is bad, Uchiyama has to speak soon or his one big chance will be lost. His big chance for what, Shin doesn't know, and refuses to speculate. Surely he isn't stupid enough to pick a fight.

Uchiyama seems to have belatedly realised what a bad idea of his this was, especially with the whole class watching him. And yet, how else can he raise himself in their eyes but to be the one to approach _him_, Sawada Shin, the guy who actually did what the rest of them dream about daily, and knocked out a teacher.

"You can't really have done it," Uchiyama says all of a sudden, words tumbling out in a huge rush, but coherent nonetheless. Shin doesn't reply, just looks at him, and so Uchiyama gains a bit of confidence in his own words, swaggers a little. "There's just no way you would have been let back to school, even _this_ one."

His words betray how little he thinks of Shirokin. Probably wasn't his first choice, or his mother's. It wasn't Shin's, or Shin's parents either, after all.

Shin half-nods, not really agreeing. More than anything he just raises his chin a little as if to listen better.

"Yeah, there's no way you could've sorted out a teacher and just be here now carrying on."

It's funny, Shin thinks, how Uchiyama's voice is so unsure of the actual words he is saying. Maybe if Shin had been protesting wildly that yes in fact he _did_ do it, then maybe he would believe Shin truly hadn't.

He doesn't see the point backing up his actions. All the teachers know, and the students heard the story from them clearly. They know deep down it's true. Although teacher's always lie about the students, when they do something bad enough on their own, there's really no need. None of them could make this kind of thing up. They couldn't _dream_ of it.

Uchiyama studies Shin for a moment, a look that really doesn't spell fear because he seems almost too busy searching for something. Shin just glares back, pretends the weeks of not speaking to anyone have turned his tongue to leather in his mouth and so he couldn't speak even if he wanted to, which he doesn't. This Uchiyama is headstrong and thoughtless and doesn't think even if he likes to pretend to himself that he does. His assumptions are stupid, and mostly he's just lucky Shin doesn't care enough to want to punch him out for it.

Except, he's the first person to even try and approach him, and for that Shin can feel a tiny amount of... _something_ in his chest. He brushes it off like a fleck of dust, and as he does Uchiyama breaks eye contact, and smiles broadly before turning away, back to the rest of the class.

"That settles it!" He says, clapping his hands once triumphantly. "I _knew_ it! He did do it, everything the rumours say! If I had done something like that, my mother would've been so mad I'd never want to speak about it again!"

It's not the reason at all, and yet he's still managed to come to the right conclusion. Shin's jaw nearly falls in shock. But it doesn't have a chance, because Uchiyama is turning back towards him and extending out a hand.

"Come on," he says, eyes flickering excitement, "you've just got to let me shake the hand of the guy who floored his teacher, please!"

Shin cracks a smile out of pure disbelief, that's what he tells himself at least, and holds out his hand for Uchiyama to shake. There is this moment wherein they're both laughing, and the rest of the class have their eyes focused on the two of them, mouths gaping and eyes wide, and the two of them just keep laughing louder and more wildly, and the world slips further away, the world Shin knows crumbles just a little bit.

"Hey," Oishi says from beside the teacher's desk, flicking through the results of the very first test papers they've had this semester, "guys, Sawada got a 100."

Even some of 1-D had started laughing with them at this point, tiny chuckles compared, but instantly all the laughing stops, even Uchiyama and Shin. Shin is, he hates to admit, scared. All of a sudden it seems to matter what they will think, what Uchiyama will think at least. His face has warped into something unreadable, and until Shin sees it mirrored in the faces all round the room he doesn't realise what it is, and that is awe.

-


End file.
